Lena Dunham Goes for the Gold at Her Sixth Met Gala (Despite Criticizing the Event in the Past)
The star – who has criticized the event in the past – was back again this year
Lena Dunham is back at the Met Gala — and she’s making a serious statement! The recently single star (Dunham and ex-boyfriend Jack Antonoff confirmed their breakup to PEOPLE in January after five years together) hit the Met steps wearing a high-necked golden gown with ruffled neck and hem, plus dark-gem Stephen Webster wreath necklace.
Dunham, 31, has attended the Met Gala five times, including last year, but has spoken critically of the event in the past.
In 2016, when the Girls creator and star attended wearing a tuxedo with then-J.Crew creative director Jenna Lyons, she apparently didn’t have a positive experience with her seatmate, football star Odell Beckham, Jr.
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“I was sitting next to Odell Beckham Jr., and it was so amazing because it was like he looked at me and he determined I was not the shape of a woman by his standards,” she said in an interview with Amy Schumer — a noted Met Gala hater — in Dunham’s newsletter, Lenny Letter. “He was like, ‘That’s a marshmallow. That’s a child. That’s a dog.’ It wasn’t mean — he just seemed confused.”
She continued, “It was like we were forced to be together, and he literally was scrolling Instagram rather than have to look at a woman in a bow tie. I was like, ‘This should be called the Metropolitan Museum of Getting Rejected by Athletes.'”
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However, Dunham later apologized for her comments, saying that she made “totally narcissistic assumptions about what he was thinking.”
“I owe Odell Beckham Jr. an apology,” she said in a statement posted on Instagram. “Despite my moments of bravado, I struggle at industry events (and in life) with the sense that I don’t rep a certain standard of beauty and so when I show up to the Met Ball surrounded by models and swan-like actresses it’s hard not to feel like a sack of flaming garbage.”
RELATED VIDEO: Lena Dunham Had a Full Hysterectomy to Remove Her Uterus and Cervix and End Endometriosis Pain
Sure enough, the star was back at the event in 2017, this time coordinating with fellow Girls showrunner Jenni Konner (and accidentally with Joe Jonas) in a raspberry one-shoulder Elizabeth Kennedy gown.
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However, Dunham’s return to the Met Gala was cut short, as she was rushed to the hospital due to complications from endometriosis. Dunham revealed in an essay in the March 2018 issue of Vogue that she had a full hysterectomy to remove her uterus and cervix in an effort to end her crippling pain as a result of the disease.
Although Dunham and Antonoff, 34, appear to remain on friendly terms (he tweeted out her endometriosis essay, saying “beautiful piece”), Dunham was recently spotted getting cozy with a mystery guy in L.A. in March.